by Tish MacWebber | Jan 24, 2018 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
Treasure Seeker Tuesday will cover a few different points this week, readers. I hope they make you think about things that you are struggling with in your own lives.
Today I do not feel very well. I either ate something that did not agree with me, or I picked up a virus at the hospital yesterday. I had to go for the ophthalmologist appointment. As a person with type 2 diabetes, side effects can be devastating, if you don’t keep on top of the disease. They dilated my pupils, and then they froze the eyes. That last part was so that the ophthalmologist can put a lens directly into my eyes so that she can quickly determine whether or not the next step is necessary. So far, I have been lucky. I do not need the common treatment called Photocoagulation which is a form of laser treatment, at this time. I am working hard on keeping my sugars in control, and that is keeping the lasers away. For now. You can learn more about this treatment here.
I am a creative, which means that I do rely on my eyesight. I am going to be getting progressive lenses as soon as we save up enough to afford them. I really notice a difference lately, and the general eye test at the appointment yesterday confirmed that I need to make this a priority. If I lost my eyesight, it would be devastating to me. I don’t know how I would continue my jewellery business, without it. I don’t know how I would be able to work outside of the home, but I do know that I would want a seeing eye dog. I am sure that I could find a way to continue writing verbally, with a voice recognition software program. But it would be a hard thing to learn how to deal with. I hope I never have to look going blind right in the eye.
I have also found that I am struggling with my winter blues this year. I was watching a video last night in one of the groups I am in, for writers. It is a supportive group, and there are a lot of great people there. I enjoyed the video and commented. It was about courage as a writer. People don’t realize it, but a lot of authors are terrified of sharing their work with the general population. There is a fear of rejection, negative criticism, and failure that brews together and holds some people back. This video was addressing this topic, and Debbie Burns is one of those brave people that put things out there, and the emotions do show that she cares deeply about helping other authors get their stories out. I write quite freely here, on the Blog, but there are times I have hesitated before pushing that publish button. On Politics and World Peace #This was an example of this. I didn’t know where to put that open letter to the leaders of the world after I wrote it. I hesitated. I asked for advice and was told that the Blog was the right place for it. So I pressed publish, and off it went!
Another example of this was my first ever Trust Your Gut story. I took the leap. I shared my own weight and medical description of being morbidly obese for the first time. I had a difficult time going public about being a type 2 diabetic, and I thought long and hard about sharing that information here. One person in my life has never been told, and unless someone tells her, she will remain in the dark about it. That is my wish. She is my grandmother, and has since stopped using her computer, and has trouble remembering things now. I didn’t want her to feel bad about giving me desserts as a child. I don’t want her to worry about me. I am doing just fine, and managing it the best way that I know how.
In terms of what I got out of watching the courage video yesterday, the word I chose to create changes in my world with was to simply just start. No further explanation was given at that time. I know that I have a lot to do, and I know that I need to start working on the things that I need to do; so that I am going to be able to feel like I can spend the time doing what I want to do. It is a vicious cycle that I fall into every winter, and I need to start something to make changes and feel like I am making progress. I decided that I need to make the “List of all Lists” and write down all of the things that I need to get done. As long as I am working on those things, I can give myself permission to be creative. This way I am not limiting my needs to be creative, and it also helps me to work on one or several other tasks that need to be done. I will write that list when I am feeling better.
If you are an author and want to learn more about Debbie Burns and her facebook group, you can sign up for it here. I like being a member, and maybe I will see you on the inside.
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
by Tish MacWebber | Jan 17, 2018 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
Hello Treasure Seekers! I have news for you, and it is all good! I have finished the Jewellery Brand makeover Bootcamp, and I have had some wonderful new ideas come to mind.
I have been struggling to find a way to move my jewellery business here, to the website, in my online store, the Boutique (Coming soon!) Part of the reason was that I wasn’t sure how to remove my jewellery line from the store my friend offered space in. I was nervous to ask her about it because I didn’t want to have it be a reason for any hurt feelings. My friend was totally fine with my decision, and I think she was ready for me to make a change. I have been talking about adding it to the website store, and now I am closer to making that happen. I was happy that my friend is being supportive of me in this. I appreciated the time that my jewellery was for sale in her store, but as I have not had a large number of sales, I think we both knew it was time for me to try something different.
Next, I had to think about the Branding. I want it here, but there is so much time and thought spent already in my Author Branding. Tish’s Treasures just doesn’t seem to fit with the new website. I thought about different names, and combinations of names to make the launch of the online store fresh, and new. A part of me is sad to let go of the name Tish’s Treasures. Deep down, I knew that I was going to have to do this, though.
Before this Bootcamp, I never gave it any real thought, of how to do this. But I knew that it was what I wanted to do, despite experts telling me that it should be one or another, not both passions sharing the same website. I joined a thread within the Bootcamp, based on branding. I worked through my thoughts and ideas with one of the admins, who also tried to steer me away from my dream of making Bling | Blog | Books a real and effective tagline for my website.
During that brainstorming session, I hashed it all out in that thread. I couldn’t understand why someone else was telling me that my idea wasn’t going to work. But then, it dawned on me. I needed to make it work by changing the name and matching it to my website. When I asked about it from a different angle, the admin agreed that this idea could work. I figured it out.
I googled my idea. When Google asks you if you really meant something else, and you are looking for a unique name that is not currently in use, that is what you want to find. I had my answer.
I took my current logo for the website and changed a few letters. And just like that,
Tish MacWebber, Always Blinging…
became my new jewellery business name. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. It seems RIGHT. When I get that feeling, I rarely make any further changes. It happens a lot. I am firm when I finally make up my mind, no matter how long it takes me to make that decision.
Tish MacWebber, Always Blinging… New Logo, new jewellery business name.
I am in the process of changing it where I can. Facebook was surprisingly fast with the update.
Now comes the best part. When I move the jewellery over, any existing jewellery will be listed under Basic Bling. I am also planning a new line for the new website. I am going to launch a new jewellery line with every book launch. Book Bling will have several Collections, one for every book I write. HOW EXCITING WILL THAT BE? I am beyond excited to see this happen. I am planning the first collection already. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but it will be unique and designed with cat lovers in mind.
It has been a creative and exhausting week. I also launched a new contest this morning to celebrate the new jewellery business name. I have another contest planned for February. I am going to try and have the store open for February. If not at the beginning, then before the end of the month. I am still sorting out the details of what to do next, but at least I have a clear direction, and a plan to get me there.
I have been trying to get this jewellery business to be successful for years under the Tish’s Treasures name. Now that I have made some tough decisions, and changed the name to Tish MacWebber, Always Blinging…
I have high hopes for new successes with this change.
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
by Tish MacWebber | Dec 12, 2017 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
Double Digits. Do you remember when you turned 10 years old? I remember that it seemed like a big deal at the time. I had lived through my first decade. I never had any real big parties for my birthday, it was in the summer, and I lived outside of town. I remember the day I found out in grade one that my phone number was long distance and nobody wanted my phone number to call me. That broke my little six year old heart. I didn’t understand what it even meant at the time, except that none of my new friends wanted to call me because of my phone number.
I am still feeling a bit out of the loop in the modern world. My household budget does not have room in it for a cell phone. I don’t NEED it to survive, I am getting along just fine without it. However, I work in the industry, and it is hard to not want to be connected in the land of text messaging as it happens, literally all around me every day.
I don’t want just a cell phone when I finally get the go-ahead from my hubby to get one. He manages our household budget, and I am eagerly awaiting the day when I can make plans for purchasing things like the next pet we bring home, 2 cell phones, attending an event that I really want to go to, my next bottle of wine, and a second car. For now, we make ends meet, and we work hard to get what we can within our budget.
One of the most important features for me when I finally do get a cell phone will be to get one with a really good camera. I use Pixabay and Canva as resources in most of my blog pictures. The picture above was actually taken by me with my Olympus 2.8 x Optical Zoom 5.0 Megapixel camera. I try to get good quality pictures with it, but sometimes they are a little out of focus because I am not a photographer. I will need a camera that is so advanced that it makes me appear to be a good photographer so that I can feel more confident about sharing my own pictures here and on my website. I am still working on that project in the midst of everything else, and I have a lot of the planning done in my head, just not executed on the internet. It will happen. I am going to plan a launch for it, and I hope that all of my current followers here will follow me and the blog to my website.
The other thing a cell phone is going to need for me to consider purchasing it is an ease of transferring the pictures for storage on my computer. I need the phone and computer to be able to work together. As I have a PC, I am guessing I may have to go with an android phone. I do know that there are many opinions out there about cell phones, and I would love to find out more information on which ones have the best cameras, work well for listening to music, and are easy to get to talk to my computer. It also needs to be reliable and wants to be easy to use. I have not yet owned a smartphone, and I am impatiently waiting for the day that I get to share my digits with my friends and family. It would be useful for blogging in my spare time, too, or checking out how the blog looks on a smaller screen.
With the recent change in Canadian Laws regarding unlocking cell phones, I am less restricted by what phone I can get, as I can use it with any Canadian carrier, including the company I work for; if I decide to go with that company. I am not as concerned with what provider I choose as I am about the camera. So I pose the question here: What cell phone would you be getting if this was your decision, with these requirements in mind? I know there are some people out there that are fiercely brand loyal, and that is OK, but if you only buy one type of phone, it may be harder for you to be objective in answering this question.
Double digits. Phone numbers. Megapixels. Optical Zoom. It all goes back to numbers. Which I am not all that crazy about. I am passionate about writing, and in the Blogging world, a good quality picture can mean the difference between someone choosing to stop and read your article or not. Blogging is something I am still fairly new at, but I know it is something that I enjoy. I will keep working with the tools I have until I can purchase something better. So, I ask you, Treasure Seekers, what would you be spending your gold on if you were in my shoes?
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
by Tish MacWebber | Nov 29, 2017 | Treasure Seeker Tuesdays
Hello Treasure Seekers. I am cutting this one close, but I have a good reason. I have been writing the book, again. I have just written 20,063 of the 50,000 word count goal for November. I only have a few days left, and I am going to do the best I can. I don’t think I am going to win, but as my own superpower is surprises, I might surprise myself and pull it off. (The theme for NaNoWriMo this year is “Superpowered Noveling” hence the reference to my own superpower).
I am dividing my projects this week. I am also working on #Momentum18 Week 1 of 4; another Jennifer Kem challenge. It is already pushing me outside of my comfort zone. The week had us start to develop a freebie offer. I have done this before, in the Scavenger Hunt for Tish’s Treasures earlier this year.
I am going to run a contest in December for a beaded snowflake, made by yours truly. It will be run with facebook live videos, on the Tish’s Treasures Facebook Page. It will also be in The Tish’s Treasure Seekers Group on Facebook. I don’t know if I will do more to promote it. Yet. I will be running more contests for the Bling, no worries there. I am going to have a Bling section on my website so there will be more to promote there, in time. If the website was ready, that would have been a great project, to launch it. I am going to have the website ready for 2018, sooner if I can get it ready. I needed time to process what I want to do with it.
Which brings me back to my challenge this week. I decided that I will make a checklist. I am not sure how to do that, but I want it to be, “downloadable and totally printable.” I may need to ask some friends for help. Want to know the hilarious part? I decided to create a checklist for how to start conquering the feeling of being overwhelmed. On day 4, I was lost in the details of the launch for this idea. Do I need to make the checklist before launching the page to announce it? It is meant to be a common sense checklist of things anybody can refer to when they get overwhelmed. I am going to test drive it before writing it, I guess. Only me, right?
I know there are a lot of topics that I could choose, and I know that I want to help people. I am not going to claim to have all the answers or to be an expert on anything but thinking, writing, and living. One thing I have learned from this year long blogging adventure is that I am capable of inspiring people. I was told this when I started Zumba, by the instructor, who is now a friend as well. I didn’t believe her. I am just me, nothing special, just geeky me. Who happens to love dancing and music.
I am starting to believe in myself, and when complete strangers read my words and comment that I am inspiring them to do things in their lives, I believe it. When people I know tell me they want to start a blog and ask for advice, I believe it. It is a part of what makes this writing adventure meaningful. I am writing from my heart, and people are getting something out of it.
Someone once told me that I should do something very simple to help me believe in myself more, a long time ago. Admittedly, I never followed that advice, but stick with me here, I have a point. They said to start every day, writing your name down on a piece of paper, and underlining it. That’s it. Do you know why it was supposed to work? Because people underline important words when they write them down. This simple habit helps you believe that YOU are IMPORTANT.
So when I think about my reactions to all of the comments, both from people telling me and people writing them down, it stands to reason that the written comments seem more real to me, even if they are coming from strangers. If you are one of the people that took the time to write a comment to me about this blog, thank you. I may not know you outside of the internet, but I consider you a friend. If you have contacted me asking for help to start your blog, that is a very high compliment. It means I am doing exactly what I am trying to do. I want to make people think about what I write. I want them to get something out of it. Ultimately, I want them to buy my books so I can write full time. And much to my own surprise, I want to inspire them to do what they are passionate about.
I don’t have my launch page ready. I may have to bow out gracefully this week when it comes to winning the prize for the challenge. That does not mean I am giving up. Not by a longshot. It doesn’t mean I need it to be perfect to put it out into the world. What it does mean is that I care about the quality of what I am putting out there, and I won’t do anything halfway just to beat a deadline. I need to work more on the concept. That is what I can live with. It doesn’t mean I can’t or that I won’t, it means I need to figure out how to do it because I can and I will. When I am ready. I have a lot going on in the next few days.
It is similar to the NaNoWriMo for me. I was inspired, but I had to figure out how to write a book based on that concept. I have written more at this current moment on the NaNoWriMo novel than I have for any previous attempt to write a book in my whole life. I can do this too. When I have an idea that grows over the length of time that I am working on the project. I have been writing down ideas for the fantasy novel. I am getting that off my shoulders by working on it when I think of things. When I get back to that after I finish the NaNoWriMo novel, I will have building blocks to work with. I needed to find out what my process is for writing books. NaNoWriMo helped me start to learn how I need to write to make the concept develop into an actual book. I may not cross the 50,000 word count before Thursday at midnight, but in my mind, I am calling this an unofficial win, regardless. I have a solid foundation for this practice book, and people want to read it. So I will have to finish it, just based on the bits I have shared with a few people as they are very supportive of my writing this book. There you have it. My superpower strikes again. A book about cats, really? Yes, really. Because I am writing it, in the way only I can. Surprise!
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
Treasure Seeker Tuesday: Photo by Tish MacWebber; Photo Edited by Noa Price
by Tish MacWebber | Nov 24, 2017 | Trust Your Gut
The names here may or may not reflect the person’s real name. If someone wants to remain unknown, we will choose a different name for that person’s story. The goal is to help people, and anonymity is a valid personal choice for contributors. I will use a person’s name only if they give permission to do so.
This week I am pleased to share another of my own stories.
Here is Trust Your Gut: Tish’s Story; Part 39
Balance. I was trying to decide what my topic was going to be about this week, and it came to me. I need to write about balance. It is a word that has a lot of meaning and plays an important role in my journey to become a healthier version of myself.
I will start with Zumba. It is a dance exercise class. I am not the most athletic person. I really love dancing, though. Almost as much as I love swimming. I like biking and skating also. I have not done the latter two for years. I was swimming in the ocean in July. I went to Zumba class twice this week. So I am most active in Zumba class. I go. I do my thing.
I had Wednesday off for a vacation day this week. I then went to Zumba class, and it was an amazing class for me. I felt free and had no weight on my shoulders from spending the day at work. What a nice change it was. I danced and moved around with a little more zest last night at class. During the stretch, I always amaze myself with my balance. If I take a few extra seconds to set up for my “tall” stretch, I can stand on my tippy toes and reach high up and hold it longer than I used to. It takes those few extra seconds to set it up, but I can be comfortable in the stretch when I do. If I don’t, I wobble. I have yet to fall over at Zumba (it is not a goal, it is a fear) and I have to catch my balance there sometimes. I can trip over my own feet in a split second, and then recover in the next second. I have mad skills at this. Once in a while, gravity wins. The result of that usually leaves me in shock, because I am such a clutz, I normally have an equally remarkable recovery skill.
Balance. The Trim Healthy Mama (THM) plan, also involves balance. I am still having commitment issues, but that is not what I am referring to. The plan encourages a way of pairing the foods that you eat to maximize weight loss by using protein as the foundation and pairing it either with low carbs, or healthy fats. The way you plan your meals on THM creates the balance for you. It evens out if you find the way your body responds to the different types of food combinations. When I focus, I can see it working. I need to work harder, but also find the balance for real world situations.
Balance. The time spent and meal planning will be the balance for the healthier version of me. I need to make the time to plan and prep cook. Then when I need something quick, it is an easy fix. That is a no-brainer.
Balance. Sleep and exercise. I need to find more time to sleep and exercise. I have been so busy at different times this year. I know that sleep and exercise are important. Especially if I am going to work my way into writing full time. I know I function better if I have regular sleeping hours. I just get wrapped up in things when I am working on the website, the blog, or my books. It also slips away from me when I am working on other hobbies. Working on my passions is a source of great happiness for me, but I have to remember that other things matter as well.
Balance. I love coffee. I love pop. I love alcoholic beverages. I do not love water. When I do drink, I choose everything before water. I need to balance that a little better.
Balance. I need to find it. In my blood sugars, food, health, exercise, sleep, hydration, passion, creativity, and every other aspect of my life.
What are you doing to achieve balance in your life?
#TrustYourGut
